[nycbug-talk] BSD vs Linux

[Dru]

On Thu, 15 Dec 2005, Kevin Reiter wrote:

> [1] http://www.wasabisystems.com/pdfs/Linux_or_BSD.pdf


Yes, this is in a similar vein to the Bruce Montague one on the FreeBSD 
website:

http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/bsdl-gpl/index.html

It is always interesting when I discuss Open Source licenses in class. The 
audience is typically sysadmins working in the field for at least a few 
years, many with self-taught Linux skills. They are always surprised to 
learn:

1. that there are over 50 different licenses defined at opensource.org
2. about the differences in legal complexity between the GPL and BSD licenses
3. that there are restrictions on GPL'd code that could possibly come back
    to haunt you

Without fail, at least one person in every class will comment "why doesn't 
everyone just use a BSD license?" Indeed :-)

Which reminds me that I never did get back to the NYI guy I met at NYCBSDCon
about Bruce's book. If you're on this list, send me a reminder email.

Dru